Transferring to a neighbouring club can't be easy. But Ross McDonald made the switch from Clones to Rock' a seamless one and picked up a Player of the Year award into the bargain. Words: Kevin Carney Ross McDonald knew he was entering the twilight of his club football career when he found the training arduous, taxing and almost bordering on a chore. In 2004 Rockcorry's experienced midfielder found combining a burgeoning farming business, a young family and his commitment to Rockcorry extremely difficult. He swears that his decision, last Autumn, to hang up his boots is final. The Clones native was once noted as a 'box-to-box' player. His 'engine' was Whelanesque, as in Dublin's Ciaran. In recent years, that engine cried out for an overhaul and '45-to-45' runs became even more scarce as he clocked up the years. Now at 38, the strapping midfielder has called it quits. Rockcorry and Monaghan club football will surely be the poorer for his decision. Over the course of 2002, '03 and '04, Ross did his damndest to help Rock' break new ground and make it through to the halcyon fields of senior football. "I didn't win any silverware with Rock' but I enjoyed my time with the club. " We were unlucky at times but the craic was good and it was an enjoyable experience. "I'll not be playing in 2005 though. I've leased a farm, have two young kids and after missing a fair bit of training last Summer I found it harder and harder to keep up with the pace of the games," confirms Ross. Reflecting on what has transpired to be his final year in his adopted green and white strip, Ross says that playing against his native Clones was a stand-out memory of the past twelve months on the playing field. "We were drawn against them in the quarter-final of the championship in Scotshouse and lost to them after a replay. "It was a big decision for me to tog out in that game but I felt we could give the championship a real good run and I suppose I wanted to quit on a high and go out on top. "At the end of the day, Clones had the edge on us once again. "It was a bit like 2002 when we were beating them by nine points but they hauled us back in to get a draw and then in the second game we went seven points up but eventually lost out. "Clones seems to have the indian sign on Rock' for a right few years now." Ross didn't fashion the big send-off that he wished but he didn't begrudge Clones their advance in the championship. How could he? Born and reared in the border town, Ross only transferred from Clones to Rockcorry in 2002 after marrying a girl with Rockcorry connections and setting up home in the village. Ross, after all, had been a mainstay of Clones teams for years and from his midfield berth in 1995 helped his home town club lift the Junior Championship. A junior league medal followed four years later. Inveigled in 2002 by then team-manager Pascal Smyth to join the Rockcorry set, Ross felt confident that he could add to his trophy cabinet and, in turn, help his new-found team-mates to realise something of their undoubted potential. "I felt I had a fair bit left in the tank and that my appetite would be re-ignited by the move to Rockcorry. "I found the commuting from Dublin to Clones for training getting tougher and tougher and Pascal (Smyth) was very persuasive. "I initially had just wanted to play a bit of Junior B but I wasn't long having my mind changed." Thus, Clones's loss was Rock's gain and Ross and his wife Orla moved into their new home at Main Street, Rockcorry. Their new home was soon added to with the arrival of Cait and Fionn, now two and 6 months respectively. Ross gave it his all with his adopted club and the fact that he was honoured by being selected as the 2003 Player of the Year said as much. After playing senior football with the St. Tighernach's-based crew for fifteen years (1987-2002), the wholehearted McDonald had practically become synonymous with all that was ambitious, honest and hard-working about Clones GFC. Indeed, the whole McDonald clan and Clones football were, for years, mentioned in the same breadth as all that was good about the gaels of Clones. It was notable also that five of the McDonald family, namely, Ross, Donald, Eoin, Niall and Lonan all lined up on the same Clones team once upon a time. You can't get more clannish than that! But once Ross cut his footballing ties with Clones, that was that. From 2002 onwards there was hardly a more dyed-in-the-wool Rock' player. In 2003 when he was afforded the Player of the Year honour, Ross was a key figure as Rock' preserved their intermediate football status after the threat of the relegation trap door had loomed large on the horizon at one stage. That year all belonging to Rock' really knew that being able to rock the championship boat would have represented a distinct bonus. Eventually the club bowed out at the hands of would-be finalists Doohamlet, albeit after a quarter-final replay. "We were our own worst enemies back then because discipline within the team wasn't what it should have been and injuries piled up too." Ross was a solid performer for Rock' in 2003 and at times recaptured some of the form that landed him a couple of trials with the senior county team around the time he received the Clones Player of the Year award in 1998 and the following year when he captained the club. But, again, demands on his time didn't facilitate his elevation to a place on the premier team in Monaghan. "The travelling to and from county training from Dublin just wasn't on. "I was working in the bar trade and that's not the kind of business that suits someone trying to make it with the county, especially when you're working so far away. "Anyway, I mightn't have made the grade," he opines with genuine modesty. It's obvious from talking to Ross that he has great time for the Rockcorry football fraternity. He speaks of erstwhile mentors like Michael O'Connell, Jimmy McGeough, Seamus Tate and Pascal Smyth in a very positive manner and he admires the spirt and the pride shown by players at all ranks in the club since he moved to the village. The link-up with Rock' certainly represented a whole new departure for the wholehearted McDonald. And talking to various gaels at grass roots level in Rockcorry, the unlikely marriage of the Clones stalwart and the village wannabes proved to be a mutually beneficial arrangement. That arrangement won't hold for the coming year but Ross guarantees that he will be with his new clubmates in spirit if not body when they take on the best of the rest at intermediate level. "A lot will depend on whether the likes of the more experienced fellas like Mickey Conlon, Ciaran McCormill and Gerry O'Brien stick with it. "If they do and another couple of ball winners can be found, the team will have a good chance of going the distance or, at the very least, stay intermediate." Ross says he does regret not being able to steer Rock' to a badly needed title success but he's content that he did his best for his new club and he'll treasure the Player of the Year trophy as a memento of three very enjoyable years with the village side. Will he miss the cut and thrust of action in 2005 though? "I probably will but I know that if I even played a bit of Junior B, the temptation would be there to be part of the senior panel and I wouldn't be able for it. " I'd like to get involved in coaching at some stage and maybe that'll help wean me off playing." Tweet

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